January 1999

Well, December has come and gone, along with all the holidays, and things around my shack are finally getting back to normal. Actually, things are more comfortable than normal in my shack, lately, as Santa saw fit to drop off a real nice operating chair. It may not be a new HF rig, but it is sure to add to my enjoyment of our fine hobby, especially during those 48 hour contests hi. Since it reclines, tilts, swivels, and rolls around, I actually had to move some of the piles of stuff in the shack so I could put the chair through it's paces. With the addition of extra heat in the shack last year, I can look forward to spending lots of time here in the next year.

Unfortunately, less of that time will be spent operating, and more will be spent with textbooks. I've been quite short of free time for the last few months, and I've been having trouble keeping up with the Newsletter duties. Therefore, I'm hoping to hand over the reigns of the Squelch Tail after the January elections. I've sure had a good time putting the Newsletter out the last two years, but it's time to spread the fun around a bit.

The next club meeting will be held Tuesday, January 12th, at 7:00 p.m. in the community room of Boone Electric. The highlight of this meeting will be the election of the 1999 CMRA officers. The Nominating Committee had no problems this time around coming up with a full slate of nominees. As always, nominations will also be accepted from the floor, so if you think you ( or a friend ) would be particularly well suited to one of the offices, be sure to throw your ( or their ) hat in the ring.

Another bit of Club Business that tra-ditionally marks the January meeting is the mad rush of members , vying for the attention of the Club Treasurer, so they can pay their Dues. Let's hope the pile up will be so unruly as to cause the Treasurer to operate "split" .John, KB0PHQ, has faithfully served as the Club Treasurer for the past several years, but perhaps he can look forward to a relief operator after the elections ...

I'm not real sure what the Club Breakfast plans are. We have been having lighter turnouts than hoped for lately, and we have ended up having to share the back room of Country Kitchens lately with other groups. This usually hasn't been a big problem, but the last time around, the other group in the room also had a business meeting. This isn't the best environment for us to get together for some eyeball QSO'ing, if we have to keep our voices down so as not to QRM their meeting ( particularly for us QRO (vocal) types hi.)

I think I heard someone mention the possibility of moving the Breakfasts over to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant, on Highway PP. That sounds like a great idea to me, as it's one of my favorite eateries. We'll need to discuss this further at the meeting.

I have a hard time keeping the names of those two restaurants straight. One time, Bonnie and I had planned to meet and eat at the Country Kitchens. I meant to say Cracker Barrel, which is where I ended up. About 10 minutes after the appointed time, I called her on the HT, and asked where she was. She said she and the kids were already seated at a table and waiting on me. I looked around for about 5 minutes before I caught the error of my ways. Since we were both already seated at tables in our separate restaurants, we went ahead and ate, with only occasional conversation over the HTs. Amateur radio to the rescue hi.

And speaking of Cracker Barrel, ( yep, I just typed Country Kitchens and had to correct it ), I would like to mention that that is where we held our last meeting. The food was excellent, the ambiance very nice, and the company was unbeatable. I don't recall the exact number in attendance, but I think it was in the neighborhood of twenty. I had to rush off for another engagement, but sure enjoyed my short time visiting with fellow ham radio buffs. I mentioned to the waiter that I was "short time" only, and he very graciously got me in and out in short order. I don't think that ever happened over on Providence Road.

.

As was reported here in the November issue, one of the pieces of new business at the October meeting was deciding what the Club would like to do with the N0BR equipment. A committee was formed (WY0B chairing ) to handle sale of the equipment ( as well as to decide what to keep.) The lion's share of the proceeds are to be put back into the Club station, with any remaining funds going to the treasury. As a result of the sale of the Collins station, the Club is now the proud owner of a nice new Yaesu FT-847. This is a full featured HF through 440 Mhz rig, with a particular emphasis on satellite operation, and it is billed as an "Earth Station" to indicate that. According to the reviews I have seen, it is a great performer on the satellite modes ( with lots of special features, such as full duplex operation, uplink and downlink frequency tracking operations, the 2 meter and 440 Mhz antenna feeds are able to supply DC to a tower top mounted preamp, and lots of other nice features.) It is also a decent performer in the HF arena, with the possible exception of how it handles during crowded band conditions, such as multi-rig contesting. We'll have to see how it does for us at next year's Field Day, if not sooner. We have also acquired proper antennas and preamps for the 2 meter / 440 side of things, but we have opted to try our hands at home brewing the antenna EZ/EL rotator systems.

The biggest single factor in our decision of which rig to purchase was the amount of new territory the rig will be likely to open up for the Club Members. Have you found yourself in a bit of a rut lately, and wanted to expand your radio horizons. Well, come on over to the Club Station a few Monday evenings, and get in on all the fun.

There are also a lot of other nice features in the FT-847, including a system called "shuttle jog tuning" which makes it real easy getting around all the radio frequency spectrum at your disposal, DSP for less than optimal conditions, the ability to switch from USB to LSB while on CW (which allows you to be certain that you are zero beat with the other station) and a nice Collins mechanical filter.

It is hoped that we might bring the rig to our next meeting, but with the antenna limitations we would face, it would probably be better to just get everyone interested in the rig to make it to the Club Station sometime.

We still have quite a bit of miscellaneous items that are destined to be sold at some upcoming hamfests, so I will report on any news as it breaks.

Once again, our thanks goes out to Bill, N0BR, for his most generous gift to the Club. Thanks, OM !

I hope that if the spirit moved you, you had the chance to make a few contacts in the annual ARRL Straight Key Night. I wasn't able to get on the air this time around, but have many fond memories of SKN's gone by. Although I've done most of my CW operating with a paddle for the last several years, I still manage to get a compliment or two on my fist on SKN ( Thanks to N0SS's mentoring, back in '72!).

The last serious operating I got in was during the CQWWCW contest, back in the weekend after Thanksgiving. N0EG and I visited Don / KA0BWH's shack for a full blown effort. We made lots of contacts and worked some pretty nice DX. I

always get a kick out of operating the contests, but the drive home was a bit rough after a couple days of little sleep. This year, we put the 40 meter wire beam up in a different direction ( toward Europe) with better results. I should have known better last year when we had it pointed to JA, considering the gray line. We ran multi-transmitter this year, vs. single XMTR ( which allows for a second XMTR to be used to chase multipliers, only). This made it a lot more fun to be on the second radio, this year. I think the next contest I'm making plans for is coming up in March.

Well, that just about wraps it up for this time around. Once again, it has been a pleasure putting out this Newsletter.

Here's looking forward to a great year of radio in 1999, the improving conditions of propagation, new opportunities at the Club Station, new friends we'll make, and the pleasure of the company of fellow Amateur Radio Operators!

73, es CUL OM/YL,

de WY0B ...

..._._

Central Missouri Radio Association

P.O. Box 283

Columbia, Mo. 65205